Abiotic factors

· Elevation is around 8,000 to 10,000 feet above sea level
· 25 to 30 inches of precipitation annually
· Very dense forest
· Grows rapidly; 81% area increase from 1962 through 1986
· Lusher and more diverse than Ponderosa forest
· Temperature- drops 10 degrees Celsius per 1000 meters ascended
· MPB's seem to feed off 80 + year old trees that are less than 8 inches thick

Biotic Factors

· Black Bears
· Mule deer
· Elk
· Mountain Pine Beetle(Mpb)
· Bobcats
· Mountain Lions
· Chickadees
· Chickarees
· Banana Slug
· Quaking aspen
· Lodge pole Pine

Importance of Ecosystem

In the far-north latitudes and down to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, just below the treeless tundra, a forest of evergreen trees encircles the earth. This is the boreal forest, and it is the biggest terrestrial ecosystem in the world. It is also largely intact, free of roads and industrial development -- especially in Canada, where more than 1.3 billion pristine acres are found. The global boreal forests are larger than even the Amazon rainforest. Like the Amazon, the boreal forest is of critical importance to all living things. Its trees and peat lands comprise one of the world's largest "carbon reservoirs"; carbon stored in this way is carbon not released into the atmosphere, where it would trap heat and accelerate global warming. Its wetlands filter millions of gallons of water each day. And as a vast and intact forest ecosystem, it still supports a natural food web, complete with large carnivores like bears, wolves and lynx along with thousands of other species of plants, mammals, birds and insects. The boreal forest is also home to hundreds of First Nations communities, many of which rely on fishing, hunting and trapping for their livelihoods.

Threats

Controlling a mountain pine beetle epidemic can be problematic. Individual trees can be protected by insecticide sprays, but the cost of preventive spraying at a landscape scale is prohibitive. Once a tree is infested, nothing can be done to save the tree. In the long run, silvicultural treatments to provide less dense, more diverse forests may reduce the extent of future epidemics, but epidemics cannot be prevented. One concern about the consequences of the current epidemic is the possible increase in wildfire threats. Little research has been done to assess the change in threats and impacts of wildfires. The limited existing information suggests that tree mortality due to mountain pine beetles may have little effect on the threat or impacts of wildfire in the affected areas, because lodge pole pines (live or dead) naturally burn in extensive crown fires that typically kill most of the large trees. Furthermore, because of the natural regeneration cycle of lodge pole pine and because the beetles do not kill small trees, natural regeneration of the pine forests is likely. Endangered animals whose homes are in the pine trees could become extinct because their home could become dead and die. Also lumber workers getting the trees out would have to make roads right through the ecosystem. Making the animals adapt to new homes.

Conservation Plan

After having learned a ton of different ideas about this fascinating ecosystem, we have decided to first test chemicals on trees bug-ridden with the MPB and see if it kills both the MPB and the trees or just the beetles. If the chemicals do in fact work and rid the Mountain Pine Beetle without killing the trees, we will put these chemicals on all of the heavily populated MPB areas. Secondly, we plan to import woodpeckers from places around the world that already have overpopulated regions thus helping both ecosystems by killing more beetles and removing woodpeckers from overpopulated areas around the globe.

4B Pine Beetle

Abiotic factors

Biotic Factors

Importance of Ecosystem

Threats

Conservation Plan